Turkmen President reelected for second term

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been reelected for a second term with 97 percent of the vote, the Central Asian country’s election authorities said on Monday, Feb 13, RIA Novosti reported.

Berdymukhamedov also holds the posts of prime minister, commander of the armed forces and chair of the energy-rich former Soviet republic’s only political party.

The 54-year-old Berdymukhamedov, a certified dentist, was praised by his seven token challengers in the lead-up to the vote.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined to send an observer mission to the February 12 elections after criticizing the lack of democratic freedoms.

Turkmenistan was ranked 176th out of 178 countries in the 2010 press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

Berdymukhamedov promised political reform when he won the last election in 2007, with 89 percent of the vote, following the death of Saparmurat Niyazov, the nation’s first post-Soviet leader.

Niyazov styled himself Turkmenbashi, or Father of the Turkmen, and made himself the center of a personality cult.

The desert nation of 5.5 million people holds the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves.